Once a few years ago I had a conversation with a friend from China about cooking in the U.S. She found it amusing that most Americans cook with recipes… recipes that tell you exactly how to cook with precise measurements of ingredients. She said that in China recipes were handed down within the family and […]

Michelle Obama hosted a Kids’ State Dinner at the White House this week. The 54 kids invited were the winners of Epicurious’ Healthy Lunchtime Challenge. The kids all created yummy recipes that were half vegetable or fruit, and affordable. You can download the 2013 Healthy Lunchtime Challenge Cookbook online for free.

My daughter’s 5th grade class had a Multicultural Feast this week. The feast was about both writing and exploring one’s cultural heritage. The students had to ask a relative for a recipe that’s been handed down within the family and then to interview that person about the history of the recipe. All of the recipes […]

My nephew Nick creates his own recipes. How cool is that! Here you’ll find his Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake recipe with a note he wrote about cooking from scratch… Dear Mama Lisa, I made this peanut butter chocolate cake for my mom, on her birthday. Her two favorite ingredients are peanut butter and chocolate. Her […]

Emanuela Marsura is a preschool teacher in Italy. She wrote to me about how her students cook in her school: "We do cooking every Friday. We have prepared: gnocchi with potatoes, taralli napoletani, cakes and many biscuits! The Children love Friday!" Cooking is a great opportunity for kids to learn… they measure the ingredients (learning […]

This recipe makes sugar cookies a little healthier by substituting whole wheat pastry flour for some of the multipurpose flour, canola oil for some of the butter, and honey for some of the sugar. I already posted one version of this recipe. This new one uses less eggs and less ingredients overall. My husband likes […]

There’s a science lesson in making natural brown food coloring. I recently wrote about creating natural red food coloring from the water made from cooking beets. Once you make red food coloring from beets it’s easy to get brown. Here are the basics to making red food coloring: Peel about 3 beets and chop […]

It’s very satisfying to make your own food coloring out of natural ingredients. It’s also educational for children to see how people used to get color out of fruits and vegetables. Not everything has to come pre-bottled from a factory! Since Valentine’s Day is coming soon, today I’ll explain how to make red and pink […]

Sugar Cookies are traditionally made in the US for holidays and other special events, especially when kids are there. In the past, I posted a recipe for Sugar Cookies made with whole wheat pastry flour. Here’s a recipe for more traditional Sugar Cookies… Recipe for Sugar Cookies 1 cup Butter 3 Eggs 1 T. Vanilla […]

Sugar cookies are nice to make for holidays and special events. They look so festive. Making cut out cookies is a fun way to get your kids to learn about baking. They can start learning to follow a recipe, roll out dough and then make the shapes with cookie cutters. This recipe makes sugar […]

This illustration was drawn by a diabetic child explaining the daily routine to be followed by a patient with diabetes in order to control the disease. The artist is from Cuba, so the text is in Spanish. I provided English translations below each image. Here are zoomed-in views so you can see the details… “No […]

My daughter’s class had a multicultural festival today. All the kids brought in food from their culture… There were samosas from India… Pierogies from Russia… Jumu "Haitian" Soup… That’s only naming a few of the delicious dishes! Some kids brought in crafts and activities from their culture… Swedish Paper Heart Ornaments are made in […]

What a great idea: Edible Schoolyards, where children help create gardens and take part in a kitchen classroom. “Students participate in all aspects of growing, harvesting, and preparing nutritious, seasonal produce”. Perhaps this is part of the answer to instilling a love of healthy food in kids… get them involved in growing and making their […]

Yuta, Yoji and Miki made this awesome “sushi” for a school birthday party. It’s made out of homemade rice crispy treats, gummy fish and fruit roll-ups. How cute and cool! The one question everyone’s asking is: How did they get the rice crispy treats to be soooo pure white? Any ideas? If so, please let […]

Here’s a yummy recipe given to me by Corrine Lewack. Corrine pointed out that it’s a good “math” teaching recipe to make with kids, since it involves counting out candy kisses and then doubling the amount of pretzels per kiss to make “sandwiches”. What you will need: 25 Hershey Kisses (Plain) 50 Snyder’s of Hanover […]

This is so cute! A 5 year old kid with a cooking show in Portland called “The Big Kitchen With Food”. It may give you ideas about how to cook with kids. Though it shows one kid, Julian Kreusser, cooking a recipe by himself. Check it out and share it with kids you know…. Enjoy […]

Corrine Lewack made this wonderful cupcake Christmas tree – that you can see in the photo above – for a party. Here’s what she wrote about it: “Here’s the cupcake tree.. not as easy as I thought… well it was easy… but had no patience tonight to space the cupcakes properly.. but… I wouldn’t have […]

I’m trying to work out ways to dye icing that don’t involve food dye. Some of the dyes today are questionable health-wise, but also, I’d like my kids to see that you can do things the old-fashioned way. Looking back at old cookbooks, I keep noticing that they used a lot of cochineal powder to […]

Deciding whether or not to buy organic food for your family is a harder question in today’s economic climate, where people are worried about job security. One answer is to selectively buy organic. Specifically seek out organic produce based on which foods have the highest levels of pesticides on them. The not-for-profit Environmental Working Group […]

Kids Love to decorate cookies and cupcakes – I’ve used this as an event at two of my daughter’s birthday parties. When she turned two I had the kids decorate their own cupcakes to eat. This year she turned 7 and the girls at her party decorated cookies as one of the activities. I made […]